There’s an unfortunate “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation in video games today. If a series develops a formula and sticks with it no matter what then it is seen as a stagnant rip-off. If the formula changes too much you run the risk of upsetting long-time fans who may not appreciate your new take on the genre.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Warner Brothers -PS3, PSV, 360, Wii, PC, 3DS, DS – PS3 version reviewed) falls somewhere in the middle. While the game play is very similar to what we have seen before in the Lego Batman, Star Wars and Indiana Jones games, there are a number of innovations to the established formula. Unfortunately, these innovations come with growing pains that hinder the player’s enjoyment of them.

The positives of the game are, for the most part, the same as always – Lego Batman 2 is cute, charming, fun, funny and appropriate for all ages. There’s little challenge to be found (unless you want to get every minikit and all the other collectables) but we all knew it was a Lego game going in to it. Danny Elfman’s Batman score continues to set the mood perfectly, and the addition of John Williams’ Superman score only sweetens the deal.

The major innovation of the presentation is the addition of voice acting. While I wasn’t thrilled with this initially I soon came to appreciate how much it added to the game. The silent, pantomiming humour of the first Lego Batman was great but actually being able to include dialogue opens things up a lot more. Also, though Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor is the only familiar portrayal in the game, the voice cast is stacked with luminaries such as Steven Blum, Troy Baker, Rob Paulsen and Townsend Coleman.

The dialogue allows the game to poke gentle fun at DC Comics mythos without outright mocking it. Between levels, Vicki Vale presents newscasts covering the action of the game. At one point she drops an Arkham City reference, reporting on the mayor’s plan to deal with the crisis at hand by walling off a section of the city and turning it into a prison “but we all know that would never work out.” Later, in an elevator on the way to confront Lex Luthor, Superman and Batman are joined by a janitor who obliviously asks if they know “the score in the big game.” Batman grimly responds that he doesn’t really follow sports.

The characterizations of Superman and Batman are pitch-perfect for this game. Batman is stoic, serious, stubborn and a little bit pompous – he’s like Diedrich Bader’s version from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but he takes himself way too seriously. Superman, meanwhile, is unfailingly positive and upbeat, eager to help and, to Batman and the player, a complete dink. He’s just so goody-goody. In a lighthearted version like this, these portrayals are fantastic.

The other truly major innovation to the game is that Gotham is now an open-world to explore. Containing all the obvious Gotham landmarks, there are plenty of hidden collectables and secret characters to unlock throughout. Unfortunately, this leads to most of the game’s major flaws – camera control and navigation of said open-world.

For one thing, there is absolutely no precision in controlling Superman, any of the other flying characters, or most of the flying vehicles – you can hover and you can move and aim yourself, but any sort of precise movement is out. Which is fine if you want to move from one general area to another, but trying to land on a specific rooftop or run through hoops when collecting gold bricks is a nightmare. Oddly enough, this only seems to be an issue in the open-world, the levels themselves are designed in such a way that the flying usually works out fine.

Driving ground vehicles is better, but not by a wide margin. In the open-world the camera will lock behind the vehicle (much like 90% of driving games, i.e. Outrun, Top Gear, Mario Kart, Gran Turismo, etc), which works out reasonably well. A particular annoyance, though, is the radar in the HUD which is useful but nowhere near as useful as a Grand Theft Auto-style minimap would be. The radar works fine for flying, but when you’re navigating streets it’s a little less useful. Not that the streets of Gotham are laid out in any particularly complicated fashion, but the radar bar is too small to really be too much use. The fact that the e-brake and bombs use the same button is far from ideal as well.

Again, vehicle control within the levels themselves is a non-issue: the game just becomes a rail-shooter with the Batmobile/Batwing/Robincopter piloting themselves. You just have to worry about aiming your weapon. These levels are fine, though I never had any complaints about the third-person vehicle levels in Lego Batman 1 or Lego Star Wars.

The camera is also incredibly finicky, making simple operations sometimes very frustrating. The game will change to a split screen if two players are navigating the open-world together, which I haven’t had opportunity to try myself, but I’ve heard a number of players complain is poorly-implemented.

In spite of all these complaints (which all feel like the growing pains of adding new features to a series and, should Lego Batman 3 occur, hopefully they will be better implemented), I still have to give Lego Batman 2 an 8/10. It’s just that much fun. For anyone who has an interest in DC Comics characters, there are a ton of them in the game and a huge amount of content to keep you occupied long after the story mode is finished. And if that’s not enough, when I bought the game it came with a Lex Luthor minifigure and codes for free downloads of ten additional characters – none of these were pre-order bonuses either.

All that content, the charm and the fun of the game make it a better game than the first Lego Batman. Be forewarned though, if you haven’t liked previous Lego games, there won’t be anything in this iteration to really draw you in.

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